I’m teaching a class right now. It has a prerequisite. You have to be at least 75 years old to be admitted. To be honest, I’m loose with this requirement, and there are a few in the group who are younger than that—but I make sure that they never add life to the discussion by saying anything.
Watch the 13:27 video or listen to the podcast episode.
The class is a five-week journey from Easter to Pentecost. It begins with Jesus saying, “I am the resurrection and the life.” After Jesus said that, he goes over to the tomb where Lazarus has been dead for four days, and raises him to LIFE as he says, “Lazarus, come forth!”
The first meeting of the class got going with the idea that resurrection is not only something that happens after you die. The life is now. Then we shifted into the experiential component of the class, imagining what it would have been like to see and hear Jesus say, “Lazarus, come forth!” (Discussion). Next, imagining Jesus calling us by name and saying, for example, “Jeff, come forth.” (Discussion really got going.) Since the class is designed to promote growth in evangelism, we imagined in what creative and appropriate way (directly or indirectly) we could say that to someone we know who is in need of true and real life. The 50 minutes was about over.
During the second class, we reflected on the fact that Jesus’ original gospel was not centered on the risen Christ, but on the kingdom of heaven. We reviewed several themes from that many-sided message. There’s never enough time to do everything, but there’s always enough time to do the Father’s will. Jesus’ true message is being proclaimed and lived; therefore, the kingdom is at hand. The kingdom of God is coming in the future. Even though planet is in bad shape now, we have a glorious destiny. To bring that wonderful age closer, we can do our part every single day. The kingdom is within you—the spirit of God enables you to know God, experience his love and forgiveness, and a whole lot more. The liberating joy of the truth of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. That way of putting it doesn’t sound liberating? Try the Parenthood of God and the siblinghood of humankind. Love God supremely and your neighbor as yourself. Jesus explained the kingdom using the language of family. And the family of God includes the family of faith and also the universal family of every child of the Creator.
In this second session, I overloaded the class and nearly killed it off. The next time, no one had done the homework of taking a step or two in the direction of giving voice to truth from Jesus’ message.
Now we have two weeks left, and I have only a tentative idea of what to do this week. But I will explain the concept of Pentecost that I’ll be sharing. The evening before he died, Jesus said, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” This means that the life in him will flow into us so that we can “bear much fruit.” That promise became real on Pentecost when the mighty Spirit of Truth (the Comforter, also called the Holy Spirit”) was poured out upon all humankind. As soon as that gift was received, the circuit was open. We can allow Jesus to live through us.
Preparing for the remaining two weeks of class, I’m about to speak again with a guy about what to do. He has a career full of experience in the theater as an actor, director, writer, and teacher. A couple days ago, he told me about some exercises that I might be able to pull off. I have a bit of theater background, too. So between the life in the spirit and the life in our collaboration, . . . . Stay tuned.
Photo credits. Play rehearsal in the Small Hall by Penny Mayes https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Play_rehearsal_in_the_Small_Hall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2264269.jpg
University of the Fraser Valley, Set Original title Komagata Maru play rehearsals
